The present disclosure herein relates to control of a semiconductor device operating at a low voltage, and more particularly to a semiconductor device including a CMOS circuit and an operation method thereof.
Semiconductor devices are widely used in a variety of electronic devices based on characteristics such as miniaturization, integration, and versatility. The semiconductor device may include a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit advantageous for high-speed operation and low-power driving. The CMOS circuit includes a p-channel MOS (PMOS) transistor and an n-channel MOS (NMOS) transistor that operate complementarily with each other. CMOS circuits may be used to implement various logic circuits such as inverters, flip-flops, NOR, NAND, XNOR gate circuits, and the like.
Modern societies provide a variety of electronic devices, such as devices for the Internet of Things (IoT), portable electronic devices, wearable devices, and the like. Even if any aspects such as increase in electronic devices, long drive, portability, low cost and high efficiency drive are taken into consideration, low-power drive technology for electronic devices is always a key requirement.
Recently, in a semiconductor device including a CMOS circuit, a circuit operation technique using a low voltage such as a near-threshold voltage (NTV) or a sub-threshold voltage (STV) is attracting attention. However, in the process of operating the semiconductor circuit at a low voltage, a malfunction or deterioration in performance may occur, which is not caused by an operation based on a conventional super-threshold voltage. Accordingly, there is a demand for preventing malfunction or performance deterioration of a semiconductor device operating at a low voltage.